Former Anglican Chapel at St Woolos Cemetery

Cadw's description

Location

St Woolos Cemetery is located along the north side of Bassaleg Road. The Anglican chapel is situated some 50 metres NE of the main entrance gate, being a pendant to the Nonconformist chapel.

History

The site was purchased by the Newport Burial Committee from Lord Tredegar in February 1854, the first burial being on 18th July of that year. The competition to design the Nonconformist and Anglican Chapels, together with the lodge and gates was won by Johnson and Purdue, architects of London, the buildings completed in November 1855. Towards the middle of the C19, growing urban populations coupled with increased cholera outbreaks meant that many parish churchyards became notoriously unsanitary. In 1850, the government passed the Metropolitan Burial Act, which was extended in 1853 to England and Wales. The purpose of the Acts, which spanned 1850-57 was to ensure that public cemeteries were laid out, bodies buried in a dignified fashion, and that all burials were recorded. The setting out of cemeteries with elaborate gates, lodges and chapels for various denominations had already been initiated by the London-based General Cemetery Company, a private enterprise, which laid out Kensal Green Cemetery 1831-37. Kensal Green received much publicity, fuelling the increasing sentimentality in commemorating the dead. Following the Act of 1853 came a boom in cemetery building, Newport being the first public cemetery in Wales. The use of contrasting styles for the Nonconformist and Anglican chapels is unusual among the early public cemeteries, reflecting the strength of Nonconformity in Newport.

The Roman Catholics after some difficulty, gained an area on the north side of the cemetery by 1855, but it was not until c. 1880 that they built their own chapel, by which time the Jews had a small separate burial ground immediately to the north of the cemetery. The cemetery was extended to the SW by c. 1880, demarcated by the avenue of pine trees towards the W end of the site, and again in the early C20. The cemetery remains in use, the chapels are now used for storage.

Exterior

Gothic style, contrasting with the Romanesque Nonconformist chapel. Construction of roughly squared red sandstone with Bathstone detail. Clay-tile roofs. Buttresses to angles and nave with elongated copings having small gablets. Cruciform plan with lower chancel, the E end of the nave marked by a tall two-stage bellcote, which has a trefoiled opening with ballflower detail: large foliage crucifix. Two-bay nave with early Decorated style two-light window to N and S (windows covered with protective sheeting). W bay of nave consists of a large porte cochere. W arch has ballflower detail within a deep hollow: shafts with foliage caps. Hoodmould with headstops, terminating in an empty pinnacled niche with steep crocketted gable. Four-centred side arches of two orders, dying at impost level. W door to nave within Gothic opening. Door has four-centred head: detail of tympanum concealed by protective sheeting. Paired boarded doors with elaborate branched iron hinges: also decorative iron margins to doors. Short transepts with N and S three-light windows: cusped lights with central roundel containing foils. Tiny open cruciform vents above to gables. Transepts also have lancets to E and W elevations, blocked to the NE by the lean-to chamber N of the chancel, which has a truncated chimney rising against the corner of the transept.

Interior

Used for storage. Not available for inspection at the time of survey (April 1999).

Reason for designation

Listed as a prominent surviving feature of the first public cemetery in Wales.